A conventional seasoning mill is designed to grind food materials, such as peppercorns, by rotating members thereof relative to each other. However, the residues left in the conventional seasoning mill may still fall out when the conventional seasoning mill is stored on a dining table or in a cabinet, thereby making the dining table or the cabinet unclean.
In order to alleviate the drawback, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional pepper mill 1 disclosed in the Taiwanese Utility Model Patent NO. M383373 includes a receiving unit 11, a grinding unit 12 mounted to the receiving unit 11, and a closure unit 13. The receiving unit 11 includes a container body 111, a cover body 112 rotatably coupled to the top of the container body 111, and a receiving space 113 cooperatively de fined by the container body 111 and the cover body 112. The grinding unit 12 includes an outer grinding seat 121 disposed fixedly in the receiving space 113, an inner grinding seat 122 surrounded by the outer grinding seat 121 and cooperating with the outer grinding seat 121 to define a grinding space 124, and a coupling shaft 123 coupled to the inner grinding seat 122 and the cover body 112 for rotatably driving the inner grinding seat 122 to rotate relative to the outer grinding seat 121.
The closure unit 13 includes a coupling member 131 co-rotatably connected to the coupling shaft 123, a closure member 132 sleeved on the coupling member 131, a perforated plate 133 fixedly disposed at the bottom of the container body 111, and a resilient member 134 supported between the perforated plate 133 and the closure member 132. The perforated plate 133 is formed with a plurality grinding openings 135, the coupling member 131 is formed with a plurality of helical guiding grooves 136, and the closure member 132 is formed with a plurality of guiding blocks 137 respectively movable along the guiding grooves 136.
When the conventional pepper mill 1 is at a closed position as shown in FIG. 1, the resilient member 134 biases upwardly the closure member 132 to abut against the bottom of the outer grinding seat 121 and block the grinding space 124. When an user rotates the cover body 112, the inner grinding seat 122 is driven to rotate relative to the outer grinding seat 121 together with the coupling shaft 123 so as to grind peppercorns in the grinding space 124, while the coupling member 131 is simultaneously rotated to drive the closure member 136 to move downwardly against the resilient force of the resilient member 134 via slide engagement between the guiding blocks 137 of the closure member 132 and the guiding grooves 136, respectively, thereby converting the conventional pepper mill 1 to an opened position. This allows ground pepper to fall from the grinding space 124 into the receiving space 113 and then be discharged via the grinding openings 135 of the perforated plate 133. When the cover body 112 is released, the resilient member 134 automatically biases the closure member 132 to once again block the grinding space 124.
Although the abovementioned disclosure can prevent the residues from continuously dropping out from the grinding space 124 when the conventional pepper mill 1 is not in use, the structure of the closure unit 13 is relatively complicated, and the guiding blocks 137 and the guiding grooves 136 are required to be precisely arranged. Moreover, the resilient member 134 may experience elastic fatigue so that the grinding space 124 may not be properly blocked.